Nonwovens, films, textiles, papers and paperboard materials as normally manufactured are relatively smooth, flat-surfaced and uniform in density, and are thin compared to their length and width. Known methods for making thicker webs from relatively long fiber assemblies—such as for textiles, carded and spunbonded webs—generally involve the use of a mechanical device to conform a mat or assembly comprised of long fibers into the shape of repeating waves or rely on a controlled gap between stationary plates or moving belts where the mat or assembly is forced to buckle and pile up into a confined area producing a fabric of a different basis weight and optionally of lower or higher density than the equivalent flat material being treated. Bonded webs of long or continuous fiber assemblies, such as those commonly employed in carded webs or self bonded spunbond webs, are normally predominantly aligned in the machine direction and have some internal cohesion in the assemblies even prior to bonding. The fibers are generally longer than the wavelength of the desired wave-like shape.
When thicker structures are desired without increasing the amount of materials used, well-known mechanical shaping treatments, such as corrugation and pleating, are also commonly employed—often in conjunction with lamination—to make three-dimensionally raised arch-like structures from flat roll goods In both long fiber and shorter fiber processing techniques, other known technologies such, as creping, micro-creping, Micrexing and similar such processes, are commonly used to alter structures to produce more bulky and generally softer fabrics. Such treatments, especially when employing relatively short fibers—either during the fabric production process or as an additional post treatment process—may undesirably reduce the stiffness and other desirable properties, such as tensile strength and compression resistance, mostly because of the reduction in the fabric's fiber-to-fiber bond strength and internal cohesion such treatments generally cause.